Los Angeles — Hundreds of people marched in the streets of downtown Los Angeles protesting President Donald Trump's decision to rescind an immigration program for those who were brought to the United States illegally as children.

Protesters held posters Tuesday evening and chanting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go" and "Our communities are under attack. What do we do? Stand up. Fight back."

Demonstrations were held nationwide on Tuesday, including outside Trump Tower in New York, in San Francisco and near federal office buildings in Phoenix.

Civil rights organisations in New York have asked a federal judge to let them challenge President Donald Trump's planned phaseout of a program shielding young immigrants from deportation.

The groups asked Tuesday to piggyback on an existing lawsuit brought last year by Martín Batalla Vidal, who was brought to the U.S. from Mexico by his parents when he was 7. Vidal is now 26.

Originally, Vidal had been fighting to revive an expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that had been halted by the courts.

Groups including Yale Law School students, the National Immigration Law Center and the anti-poverty group Make the Road New York now want to amend that suit to take on Trump's plan to dismantle the program entirely.

They say Trump's rollback violates the Constitution because it is based on discrimination over race, ethnicity or national origin.

"This decision by Donald Trump is a direct attack on immigrant youth like me and on our families, and it's based on one thing: the racist beliefs of a president who has been attacking Latinos and Mexicans since the first day of his campaign," Vidal said in a written statement.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the administration is ending DACA because it believed President Barack Obama's creation of the program without Congressional approval was "an unconstitutional exercise of authority."

Advocates of immigration restrictions applauded the demise of the DACA program and say any effort to save it by Congress must be tied to new enforcement measures.

Center for Immigration Studies executive director Mark Krikorian says he supports letting DACA recipients stay if it comes if it comes with a requirement that employers electronically verify the immigration status of anyone they hire.

He also says DACA recipients must be prohibited from getting legal status for their families and that the program can't result in an increase in the overall number of green cards.

Dan Stein of the Federation for American Immigration Reform calls DACA an "unconstitutional abuse of executive authority" and says Congress now has a chance to keep it in place as part of a broader package that may include the border wall, more restrictions on legal immigration and stepped-up deportation efforts.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that the administration will stop accepting new applications for DACA. Congress will get six months to pass a new version before officials stop renewing permits.

Washington state's attorney general said he plans to sue the Trump administration over the decision to end a program protecting young immigrants from deportation, an act he said was "a dark time for our country."

Bob Ferguson, who earlier this year sued Trump over the travel ban affecting mostly Muslim nations, said at a news conference Tuesday he would file a lawsuit "very soon."

Attorneys general from California and New York have also indicated they plan legal action. Ferguson said he had been in contact with them.

The attorneys general of California and New York say they are prepared to take legal action against the Trump administration over its decision to end a program for young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or overstayed visas.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the state is prepared to defend participants in the DACA program. He said his office is evaluating Tuesday's order to end the program in six months and determining what legal arguments to make in a lawsuit.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said ending the program allowing hundreds of thousands of immigrants to remain in the United States is cruel and unwarranted.

Bill Gates took to Facebook to express his disappointment at the scrapping of the DACA program.

Young immigrants have expressed their distress following President Donald Trump's decision to rescind an immigration program for those who were brought to the United States illegally as children.

Protests took place across the country, including outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, where more than 30 people have been arrested.

University of California President Janet Napolitano has denounced what she calls President Donald Trump's "misguided" decision to end a program protecting immigrants who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children.

Hundreds of teachers and students demonstrated outside Metro State University in Denver to protest President Donald Trump's decision to repeal the program.

The protest Tuesday began with a march down the street and grew to about 400 people. Some cried as they held hands during a sit-in.

In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel told youths at a high school with a large number of students in the country illegally that they are welcome. The mayor says Chicago schools will be a "Trump-free zone."